The Cameroonian government has lifted the suspension on controversial palm oil project in the northwestern part of the Central African nation, reports the AFP. The project, run by U.S.-based Herakles…
An American company has halted work on a controversial palm oil project in Cameroon due to opposition from local communities and environmentalists, reports Reuters. Herakles Capital, a U.S.-based investment firm,…
A scene of terror: the bodies of 89 elephants were found in Chad earlier in the month following a massacre by poachers. Photo courtesy of SOS Elephants in Chad. Eight…
'And also, they were alive when the poachers started to cut off their faces'—Celine Sissler-Bienvenu. Poached elephant on its knees with another lying dead behind it. Last year poachers killed…
Forest elephant in Gabon More than 60 percent of Africa's forest elephants have been killed in the past decade due to the ivory trade, reports a new study published in…
Forest and river in Herakles' concession area. Photo: © Greenpeace/Alex Yallop. Satellite mapping and aerial surveys have revealed that a controversial palm oil concession in Cameroon is almost entirely covered…
Rainforest in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler 2012 was another year of mixed news for the world's tropical forests. This is a look at some of the…
Clearing of trees in a concession area of Herakles Farm’s area for a palm oil plantation. Greenpeace says these clearings are illegal since Herakles' lease has not been given final…
UPDATE: The detained activists were granted conditional release on November 18. See this post from the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) for more details Aerial photographs of Talangaye oil palm…
Lowland gorilla in Gabon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Cross River gorillas and eastern gorillas lost more than half their habitat since the early 1990s due to deforestation, logging, and…
Forest clearing for palm oil production in Cameroon. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace Herakles Farm, a U.S.-based agricultural developer, will no longer seek eco-certification of its 70,000-hectare oil palm plantation in…
Ten tropical African countries will receive training and support to develop national forest monitoring systems, reports the United Nations. Brazil, which has an advanced deforestation tracking system, will guide the…
Elephant conservation is imperiled by poor spatial planning, according to a new study in mongabay.com's open access journal Tropical Conservation Science. Tracking two elephant matriarchs in and around Bénoué National…
Infant lowland gorilla in the Congo basin rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Central Africa has the newest World Heritage site. On Tuesday, the United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural…
Last week, the west African nation of Gabon committed over 1,200 ivory tusks and carvings to the fire. The act, which was meant to send a strong signal to illegal…
A mother with her severely malnourished child in the Sahel region. Photo: UNICEF/Chad/2012/C Tidey. Warnings over a possible famine in Africa's Sahel region are becoming louder and more intense. Abnormal…
Captive Cross River gorilla at Limbe Wildlife Center, Limbe, Cameroon. Photo by: Julie Langford. Ever wonder what it would be like to be charged by a male gorilla? A new…
Dogon village Songo in Mali, Africa . The Dogon are an ethnic tribe in the Sahel. Photo by: Bigstock. The UN announced yesterday that food security in the Sahel region…
Aerial photographs of Talangaye oil palm nursery in Nguti subdivision of Herakles Farms planned oil palm plantation. Photographs taken in February 2012. Photographer wishes to remain anonymous. Eleven top scientists…
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has recently returned from Bouba Ndjida National Park in northern Cameroon, where at least 400 elephants have been slaughtered since mid-January. IFAW is…
Cameroon's military has been called in to Bouba Ndjida National Park to take on foreign poachers that have slaughtered hundreds of elephants for their ivory, according to the World Wide…
Wildlife officials have found 458 dead elephants in Cameroon's embattled Bouba Ndjida National Park, reports the AFP. However officials fear the actual number is even higher around 480. Over the…
More than 200 elephants have been slaughtered for their tusks in less than a month in Cameroon, reports the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The group blames Sudanese poachers…
UNFF Director Jan McAlpine with winners Paulo Adario, Rhiannon Tomtishen, Madison Vorva, Paul Nzegha Mzeka, Shigeatsu Hatakeyama, and Anatoly Lebedev. Courtesy of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) The…
The government of Cameroon approved a feasibility assessment for the first REDD+ project in the Central African nation, reports the Global Green Carbon Corporation, which is developing the project. The…
Screenshot of new website of community mapping in central Africa's forests. A new initiative to place community mapping of central African rainforests online could prove key to local rights in…
Kivu giant pouched rat caught on camera trap eating a seed of Carapa grandiflora. Photo by: Aisha Nyiramana. Rats are rarely thought of as heroes. In fact, in many parts…
The black rhino, which is considered critically endangered, in captivity. Photo by Rhett A Butler The western black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis longipes) roams the woodlands of Africa no more. The…
Female western lowland gorilla with infant in captivity. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Forest ranger, Zomedel Pierre Achille, was brutally murdered by gorilla poachers near Lobéké National Park in Cameroon,…
Map of the Herakles/SGSO plantation in Cameroon. Courtesy of SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund Industrial palm oil production is coming to Africa, its ancestral home. And like other places where expansion…
